Hammurabi's Babylonia

Landau, Eleine. "Hammurabi's Babylonia." The Babylonians. New York: Holt,RInehart and Winston, 2010. 

pg 39-44. Print. 

The first Babylonian king, Hammurabi, created the book of over 280 laws. 

Some of his laws are fair and some are unfair. For example, it is fair to

kill a person if he is supposed to put out a fire, but instead he gets

into the fire and steals things from the inside. This law is correct.

But then, there are some laws that are not that fair. For example, if

the builder builds a house and it collapses and kills the owner,the builder

should killed.Not fair. Or, it the owner's son gets killed, the builder's son

should be killed. It's not his fault that the building that his father built

and collapsed. But on the other side, the builder didn't know that he made 

a poorly built house,it's not his fault. So, as you can see, the justice,

law and order weren't so fair at that time. People that lived in ancient

Mesopotamia couldn't have been so great and the people didn't have much

freedom. 

A day in the life of a Bronze Age Trader

    I wake up on a sunny morning, go to the river and wash my face, and then I go off to work. My job is a trader. I work in a little town square, where most of the traders do their jobs. I sell bronze artifacts. There comes my first customer. He wants that nice bronze pot. Yes, first thing sold today. I traded the pot for a nice necklace. Now, there are two kids playing with stone swords. Ouch, one boy broke another boy's sword. Luckily I have a bronze sword so I traded it for a hat he was wearing.
    It is almost lunchtime, so I  go on a short break and visit some if my friends. We had lunch outdoors. After I ate, it's time to go back to work. I come to my stand and in front of it, a lady is waiting. She has a beautiful scarf around her neck.  " Hello, ma'am, what can I get you?" She wants a wheel. I gave her one of the two wheels which I have. I got that scarf just in time, it started snowing outside.
It's almost sunset, so I should close my stand, soon... However, a very weird looking man came toward me at that time. " What can I get for you sir?". He was a stranger from a little city close by. And one thing which was unusual about him is that he actually didn't want anything. He was drunk and didn't know what he was doing. I quickly took him to a witchdoctor who lived close by and left him there. I had to go back to my shop because there are many thieves who might steal my goods while I am away. 
Just before closing time, I heard screaming and  I saw a man running away from a group of people mounted on their horses. They had bows and arrows and some even had axes. The fugitive ran past my stand. I had another bronze sword, so I tossed it to him. To help him, there was a rock on the ground and I took it, threw it at the gang and they ran away. The flee awarded me with one of the most precious pots. I will try to keep it, but if necessary I will be able to trade it for many other useful goods.
     It is closing time, what a day! I had many customers, but for the last two, I put my life  in jeopardy, in order to save their lives.